Matt's Notes

Experimental Game Lab Talk ... Public Libraries Association Conference

2008-04-12T10:53:00.003-04:00

Wow! It has been a busy month. I just returned from Computers in Libraries and after a major wrestling match with Slideshare.net I've at least posted slides from one of my PLA talks. I will try to get the other posted in an abbreviated form soon.

Here are slides that I created for the PLA Table Talk on ... experimental Game Lab in the Library. The talk went well. We had about 15 participants who all shared stories, questions, issues and problems related to doing and creating gaming activities/programs in their libraries. We had folks from Park Ridge Public Library, Orange County Library System, Lafayette Public Library, County of Los Angeles Public Library, Hennepin County Library, Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library, Jefferson Davis Parish Library, Cuyahoga County Public Library and San Francisco Public Library.

Some of the highlights:

One library creates gaming kits or programs in a box with game consoles and instructions.
Someone else mentioned that they create a Senior's Bowling Tournament with the Wii.
The thought of trying to use portable devices, i.e., cell phones, to interact with our communities better, via gaming is another angle on the issue. The game "Kill You with Kindness" was brought up as an example.
Park Ridge Public Library is doing Game Design Workshops for youth.
Orange County Library System has done some great gaming programs with Full Sail and EA Games that educate youth about careers in games.

As one can tell it was a lively conversation were people shared their stories and ideas. Thanks to you all for participating.

Matt

Infopeople Workshops ... Web 2.0: Using Social Software with Teens

2007-10-29T14:24:00.002-04:00

In that later part of 2007 and early 2008, I had the pleasure of leading the Web 2.0: Using Social Software with Teens workshops for Infopeople in CA. It was a real learning experience for me. Facilitating the full day workshop, visiting with and discussing new programming ideas with library staff who work with teens in California was a great treat.

Thanks to Infopeople and all of the great California Librarians that I met.

KRL2pt0

2007-10-10T22:38:00.000-04:00

I had the pleasure of spending this past Monday with the Kitsap Regional Library to assist in their Learning 2.0 kick off. Take a look at what they have started and give them a shoot out of encouragement at: KRL2pt0.

The Seven Axioms of Yves

2007-10-01T20:29:00.006-04:00

I found this awhile back in one of my favorite bookstore mags, Fast Company. He really makes some great points.

The Seven Axioms of Yves

From: Issue 119 | October 2007 | Page 99 | By: Fast Company Staff

"Design is how you treat your customers. If you treat them well from an environmental, emotional, and aesthetic standpoint, you're probably doing good design."
"Design must be integrated throughout the organization. Design-driven businesses foster creativity and innovation at their core and reward factions typically at odds (marketing and operations or engineering) for working together."
"Design is not a short-term fix. It's a long-term engagement that requires you to think about how design affects everything that touches the consumer--from product to packaging to marketing to retail to the take-home experience."
"As in marketing or operations, you must be willing to fail at the design level."
"Design must be driven from the top. CEOs in most industries today must have a true relationship with, and understanding of, the creative side of the business."
"With design, the solution to a problem will be different every time. Doing what your competitors are doing is not the answer. The connection to your customer has to be unique, not formulaic."
"Never ask the consumer about the future. You can ask them what their aspirations are, but you will not get an answer about what you should do. Design will bring those stories to life."

Read the entire piece here: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/119/all-about-yves.html

Wiking the Blog Walking the Dog ... presentation

2007-06-29T15:44:00.000-04:00

From American Libraries Direct Annual Conference Edition ...
Wiking the dog
Rick Roche writes: “Jed Moffitt of the King County (Wash.) Library System began Monday’s PLA-sponsored ‘Wiking the Blog and Walking the Dog’ with family stories that somehow led to a disclosure that the topic of social software in libraries is not so cutting-edge as it was 18 months ago when the topic was chosen for the conference. The topic has matured a bit. He thought it was still worth discussing. The overflow crowd agreed.”...
PLA blog, June 26

My presentation ... is here.

League of Worlds Notes …

2006-10-30T17:17:00.000-05:00

League of Worlds Notes …

This is the 3rd meeting of this group of folks interested in using virtual worlds, role plays, simulations and education. Role of metaphors in virtual worlds was one active conversation at the last colloquim.

New faces … group and work has expanded. Will try to produce an artifact of the work here – to contribute to the conversation that is happening all around us.

Rod Riegel using EverQuest II
Create an online portal with a backstory. Nice video intro.
Create a Guild … The Change Guild
Automated Functions: members, events, bank & chat.
Do something different and better than you can do in a face to face educational setting.
Create Quests: active, immersive and automated.
Quests: Attain level 20 in EQ2
Potential subjects:
Econ, geography, sociology, psychology, education, history, math, philosophy, linguistics, physics, politics
Nic Lee at Stanford lists appropriate material to this.
Alternatives?
Create your own world
Econ 201 at UNCG
Build a mod
Revolution created by Education Arcade
Use a Social Environment
e.g., Second Life
Currently about 40 MMORPGS
Videogame players
50% pre tweens
81% teens

Creating Persona’s in SL
Can be a group … an avatar
Infinitely customizable

Life as an avatar
AETZone – 3D Virtual World developed by ASU

AET uses Active Worlds virtual world (http://www.activeworlds.com/)
Uses audio chat with Talking Communities
Took some pictures of various slides.

No sense of place by Joshua N.—a book

Place 1st, 2nd and 3rd places …
Promotion of kinesthetic learning …
Cognitive scaffolding: presense, space, affordance …

Greg Jones from Univ. of North Texas
AERA TACTL SIG – games and sim learning
Developing and writing about outcomes – what is this cool stuff and how does it work.
Adoption is the issue that is facing us in educational research.
Computer gaming inventory – how does their gaming understanding and experience help with their learning and test scores.

Narrative and Story in Learning from the Institute of Creative Technologies
What is narrative?
Recounting of a sequence of events
continuant subject
What is a story?
Narrative +
Point
Structured plot
Dramatic arc
Emergent narrative
it is a mental construct with narrative psychology
Jerome Bruner’s construction of reality
Simulation
Coherent narrative doesn’t always emerge
Guided Narrative
Story telling
Constrain emergence
From simulation to game
Correlation between narrative and pedagogy
Emergent narrative constructivist learning
Guided narrative – guided teaching (pedagogy)
Benefits of supporting narrative thought
Engagement and motivation
Situated learning through dramatic role-playing
Memory and well-structured narrative
Durative belief change
Transfer of tacit knowledge
Interactive Storytelling
Computer tells a story
User is interactive participant
User actions incorporated into narrative and can change the direction and/or outcome of the story
Emergence vs. Guidance
Common approach: Branching – a lot of work
Interactive Narrative for Training
Hypothesis: Expertise through narrative-mediated experience
Goal: A system that uses story to control a trainee’s experiences in a training simulation
IN-TALE (Interactive Narrative – Tacit adaptive leader Experience)
Narrative-based training simulation
Branching …

Back story
marketplace security
Characters Saleh, Hassan
Scenario
…
Mixed-simulation control

Automated Story Director
-the bridge between simulation and story
-directs character agents
-monitors progress of trainee through story
-dynamically adapts story to keep trainee progressing towards relevant situations
Maintains user participation

Conc.
Strong correlation between narrative and pedagogy.

Dynamics of online role-play simulations: games learning and society
www.fablusi.com
www.simplay.net

Second Life Library
http://zeno.ced.appstate.edu/wikis/LoW/index.php/Second_Life_Library_..._Info_Island

ASU Library’s presentation on Virtual Library Interface Design
Virtual Usable: A Test of the Library
-Audio chat rooms?

Creating a 3D Environment for Case Study Analysis: Part II
That was Then …
Sense of Presence
Serendipitous dialogue and Learning
Engaging environment
Brought students in LIS and School Admin together …
Web 2.0 tools to provide collaborative tools within the Info Commons
Cybraria – not used because he doesn’t really need a programmatic specific tool/area

Internet Librarian 2006 Notes Draft …

2006-10-30T15:03:00.000-05:00

Internet Librarian 2006 Notes Draft …

Cliff Lynch
Practices of scholarship teaching and learning are changing. What does this mean to librarians and info sciences?
Looking beyond traditional structures …

Cyberinfrastructure-
e-science – practice of science has been transformed by high performance computation, networking (remote access and access to other people and shared operational apparatus), large scale management reuse of data for modeling and simulation of data. The Europeans, Canadians and in the U.S. are developing councils to address these needs and uses.
This opens up high-end astronomy to school kids.
Thus, how do we get data reused and curated?

This is not just about the sciences, but much of this same thinking and modeling is happening within the humanities and social sciences. There are some great leadership projects within this area.

“Physics progresses one funeral at a time.”

Humanists want access to evidence … which is a big interest.

Museums are also playing a big role in this. Lots of interest in getting large-scale digitization projects going in our large, fine arts museums. Getty is talking about digitizing their public domain material.

Special collections of the future in humanistic endeavor are going to have to deal with how people approach life. Meaning how do they approach digital life. Scalability problem – historians, etc. cannot deal with all of the data/information – need for info retrieval and data mining issues.

Roles of Libraries …
Policy choices? The sciences – the main role of the library is to pay for journals.
Can’t deal with data curation esp. in the sciences. Future of research libraries may take different paths.

Nature of personal history is changing. Is an issue with any cultural memory organization? The scope of these interests is getting broader. The rise of amateur science, esp. within botany, biology, etc. Libraries of all kinds need to be aware of this.

Offer a series of programs about how to record your life history within a public library.

Determining & Communicating Value
Joe Matthews

How do you communicate the value to those that count?

Elevator speeches … 30-60 sec., 3 min.

Adding value (from a book by Robert Taylor)

∑ ease of use
∑ Noise reduction
∑ Quality
∑ Adaptability
∑ Time savings
∑ Cost savings

Why demonstrate value?

∑ Library’s contribution to meeting org goals and objectives
∑ Show accountability
∑ Advocacy and marketing too
∑ Be proactive

To show value
Use jargon that shows you understand who they are

Evaluation model

Outcome that answer are we doing the right things.

Impact

Value

Benefit

Taxonomy of results:
Time aspect
Money estimates

Don’t talk about circulation … talk about the impact on lives, esp. children.

Public library:
Equity

Economic Impact

Leisure time
Informed personal decisions
Literacy
Support of education 5pt increase in test scores with formal partnerships between public library and schools.
Seattle public got the conv. And visitors bureau to pay for a volunteer coordinator because they are bringing in 17M in revenue to the downtown econ dev. How about ImaginOn?

Cost Benefit ratio – rate of return analysis
3:1 Carnegie
10:1 Phoenix

How to do …. Find local supplier to compare services to
Identify all services price amount of use value
Child. Bks $10 100.000 $1,000,000

Special libraries must prove a positive effect on the bottom line.

Action plan

Elevator speeches

∑ Know your audience and use their language
∑ Determine your value
∑ Communicate your value by focusing on benefits
∑ Use their jargon!

Life Qual Survey is from ARL similar to Serv Qual used in retail – asking customers for a score of services and then use GAP analysis to figure it out.

Flickr and Libraries
It is a real networking tool.
Flickr groups – Libraries and Librarians, Creative Commons, Second Life Library 2.0
We need an Eye4You Alliance flickr group.
Discussion threads are also somewhat useful.
Geoblogging which reports/tags lat and long of pictures
Moo cards –biz cards with flickr images on one side and then contact info on the other.

Fd’s flickr tools
Nancy pearl action figure site
Jail finds – prison librarians find in the books when returned.
Librarian trading cards
Library bags
Westmont Public library
Colr pickr – find photos that have certain colors
Retrievr –sketch the photo that you might be looking for …
Flickr leech
Flickr graph- data visualization
Clockr – real time using flickr photos
Spell with flickr

MySpace Invaders
Videos on YouTube about Myspace: MySpace Commercial, MySpace Addicts, Where’d You Go (MySpace).

Historic figure/book character project

Meebo me widget … look for it.

Learn about being in the user’s space.

My own café at the southeastern library system.

Facebook
Identity performance – dynamic and static
Writing on walls
The User is Not Broken …

L 2.0

2006-10-09T00:28:00.000-04:00

This has been a wonderful program. It has brought some real insight and change into my thought process about how to approach some problems, opportunities and educational objectives about web/library 2.0. There are and have been some wonderful things hapening out there with these tools and iterations of web software. Learning 2.0 has forced me to take a look at several things that I knew of but never really took the time to play with and understand. Tools such as del.icio.us, technorati, rollyo, wayfaring and many others are things that I will definitely explore more deeply.

One aspect of what needs to be added to L 2.0 is how does this then apply to our public programming and educational objectives within our communities. Because we serve those who come through our doors and those that come in via our web doors. Both need to learn, understand and utilize these new forms of interaction and learning for their homes, businesses, schools, personal lives and communities.

Thanks to Helene, her staff, library admininistration and leadership and most of all thanks to all of those that have participated in this wonderful learning event. This is truly a sign of a dedicated and willing staff that is open to change for all of the right reasons.

eAudiobooks

2006-10-09T00:21:00.000-04:00

The Netlibrary service was interesting to use. I searched for a couple of things that I've been reading and listening to. It didn't have the Ayn Rand titles in eAudio format, but it did have them in eBook format. Therefore, I went on to look for "The World of O'Henry" and found it in eAudio format. After checking it out I went to download it to dsicover that the files download in a wma format. Wma's are Windows Media Format files and my MacBook in its current installation can't use a .wma. Bummer ... oh well it was worth the try.

Podcasts

2006-10-08T23:42:00.000-04:00

I was first introduced to podcasts by a co-worker in Bloomington and quickly became a fan. My first RSS feed podcast was to keep up on Amanda Congdon at Rocketboom. I don't think she is with them anymore. Nope she was let go ...

The other podcast thing that I've been involved with and on is with the Talis group. Talking with Talis is here at: http://talk.talis.com/.

I could also recommend www.mediasnackers.com. Especially if you are into youth technology and media stuff.

Video Sites ...

2006-10-08T23:24:00.000-04:00

Oh, I think that this is and will continue to be a big element in the library's impact via 2.0 stuff. Video is one of the great educational media delivery methods. YouTube and other sites are creating excellent low cost models that would allow us to deliver such video training, etc. We need to be up on this and aware of everything that is good and useful to use for our purposes.

That said, my kids and I love to share goofy, silly videos that we find with each other. Here is something that I found awhile back that you might find funny.

Wayfaring

2006-10-08T23:12:00.000-04:00

Yeah, Wayfaring one of my favorites. although I discovered it over 4-5 months ago, I've only added one map and here it is: http://www.wayfaring.com/maps/show/8740. Hopefully, you will be able to see it, for it is pointing out one of my favorite coffeeshops in Bloomington, IL of which I greatly miss. Yeah, I miss a few of my family and friends in the Bloomington/Peoria areas too. NC is nice, but a bit different at times.

Best Practices Wiki

2006-10-08T22:50:00.000-04:00

The Library Best Practices Wiki is wonderful. It provides a great place for ideas and conversations to take place about all sorts of library programs, operations, etc. I'm currently working on posting PLA's Tech Notes series on this site to see how this might work in this new 2.0 environment. In the past I posted a fair amount of information on the site about programs that I had led at another institution ... within their great section on gaming
Ex. Bloomington Public Library Calling all gamers in grades 6-12 the next Game Fest is coming, Saturday, May 13 to Old Town Township Hall, from 1-4 pm. We are playing DDR (as always), Mario Kart, Guitar Hero and more. If you have never been to Game Fest, make this one your first. Register here, today.

Wiki's

2006-10-08T22:23:00.000-04:00

Wikis are great. I've started to use them on several collaborative projects that I'm involved with at present. I'm currently working on moving the Tech Notes from PLA over to a wiki format, via MediWiki on the Best Practices for Libraries Wiki. I have created, via pbwiki, one for an Internet Librarian 2006 presentation that I'm working on with a colleague who lives in Chicago. My colleague, Kelly C. here at PLCMC, has created one, using pbwiki, that we are working with for the Teen Second Life Library project that we are working on here at PLCMC with the Alliance Library System. Then, lastly I've started to mess around with Confluence for an internal project within our Technology Education Department here at PLCMC.

They are excellent collaborative spaces to work within.

Library ~.~

2006-10-08T21:59:00.000-04:00

It is interesting in that for the past year or so I have resisted the whole 2.0 jargon, yet I have embrassed it for what it is. To me that is what web/library/learning/etc. 2.0 is about. It is about being here and now and waking up to the world that is developing around us. It is about paying attention to those things that are transforming life and the experience of such life.

We tend to always put stuff into boxes because of our vocational interest of direction yet we are all in the same boat or planet if you will. Yeah, maybe it is beneficial from an employer's viewpoint to say oh look she's really thinking well for the library, but in all actuality if we were somehow included into the big picture of the world that is chatting about organizational, customer driven change we just might have a chance at changing the direction of this whole ship.

Enough of my randomness I think the web/library 2.0 thing is extremely useful within the progress of our organizations and people not because of the actual technologies but more because of the fact that it, hopefully, opens the eyes of leaders/managers/decisionmakers and all staff to understand that there is something going on and we need to be a part of it. We need to watch, adjust, break down barriors, change jobs, develop new departments, omit old ones with or to use what is about to happen, adjust positions, etc. We need change and it needs to be thoughtful, creative, on-the-fly yet planned and compassionate.

So to recap let me say that library/web/whatever 2.0 isn't about software, technology ... it is about people, their thoughts, needs, desires ... they are changing because the formats of interaction and communication of the times are changing.

del.icio.us

2006-10-06T14:55:00.000-04:00

Although I've played with del.icio.us in the past, I haven't set up an account and used it. I'm always charged when I find tools that allow me to connect with others in this way. I still have some more playing to do, but I have at least uploaded bookmarks from IE and Firefox to see how things mesh there.

Fun with Rollyo

2006-10-02T14:32:00.000-04:00

This was an interesting and fun little tool to mess with. I created two search rolls. One for Second Life: http://rollyo.com/mgullett/my_second_life/, and another for YouthTech: http://rollyo.com/mgullett/my_youthtech/.

LibraryThing Fun

2006-09-22T14:18:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I started messing with Library Thing awhile back and really enjoyed the possibility of connecting with others that have similar reading patterns as I.
My profile is here: http://www.librarything.com/profile/mgullett.

Image generators

2006-09-22T14:12:00.000-04:00

These were cool. I tried out a couple of them The Generator Blog and Letter James.

Flickr Fun

2006-09-09T15:19:00.000-04:00

Here is a little fun that I was having with fd's Flikr Toys (http://flagrantdisregard.com/flickr/poster.php).

Killing Monsters : Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence

2006-08-31T17:57:00.000-04:00

Notes:
p. 8
One child therapist related his own rewarding uses of Pokemon action figures with young patients. Another said that his concern was for children who didn't have the chance to talk through what they'd experienced in the media and that "what you've demonstrated here is how beneficial any media experience can be in the context of constructive adult attention." An especially enthusiastic psychoanalyst said, "We're so afraid of aggression in this society that we haven't been able to talk intelligently about it. You're doing for aggression what Papa Freud did for sexuality!" You've made on little boy very happy." said a psychiatrist who'd come with her husband, another doctor. "We haven't let our son watch shows like Pokemon, but I think we will now."

p.9
What I've learned in the Art and Story Workshops has consistently reinforced my belief that the vast array of fantasies and stories that we tend to dismiss with such labels as "media violence" are used well by children. I've seen young people turn every form of imaginary aggression into sources of emotional nourishment and developmental support. But I'm startled sometimes, too. I bring in my own biases about what's beneficial and what's not. And sometimes a boy like Phillip will smash them.

p. 11
One of the functions of stories and games is to help children rehearse for what they'll be in later life. Anthropologists and psychologists who study play, however, have shown that there are many other functions as well -- one of which is to enable children to pretend to be just what they know they'll never be. Exploring, in a safe and controlled context, what is impossible or too dangerous or forbidden to them is a crucial tool in accepting the limits of reality. Playing with rage is a valuable way to reduce its power. Being evil and destructive in imagination is a vital compensation for the wildness we all have to surrender on our way to being good people.

In focusing so intently on the literal, we overlook the emotional meaning of stories and images. The most peaceful, empathetic, conscientious children are often excited by the most aggressive entertainment. Young people who reject violence, guns, and bigotry in every form can sift through the literal contents of a movie, game, or song and still embrace the emotional power at its heart. Children need to feel strong. They need to feel powerful in the face of a scary, uncontrollable world. Superheroes, video-game warriors, rappers, and movie gunmen are symbols of strength. By pretending to be them, young people are being strong.

p.12
When something troubles them (children) they have to play with it until it feels safer.

We want them to mirror our adult restraint, seriousness, compassion, and pacifism. But they can't-and-shouldn't-mimic adult reactions. Play, fantasy, and emotional imagination are essential tools of the work of childhood and adolescence.

p.16
A lot of us stumble over that as parents, blaming what our children see for making them want things, forgetting that it's our children themselves who are doing the wanting. Each child's fantacies and emotional needs are very much his own, even if he shares them with millions of other kids. When we burden those needs with our own anxieties, we can confuse and frighten children about their own feelings. Adult anxieties about the effects of entertainment are sometimes the real causes of the very effects that we fear most.